In There Is Business Like Show Business* on Radio 4, Will Young (yes, I know, bear with me) examines the intriguing world of Industrial Musicals — lavish and complex musical theatre devised in the post-war years by corporations to play as informative, entertaining and supposedly morale-boosting features within trade-conventions — mainly to private audiences comprising of corporation staff. It cites examples such as ‘Tractor Man’ — a whole musical devised around the benefits of productivity enhancing Ford Tractors — as examples of a time when corporate budgets (and optimism in the power of consumerism) were at an all-time high, and provides an interesting insight into a very different way of thinking about brands, design and marketing — one which manages to be simultaneously sinister, nieve, and endearing, in a nostalgic kind of way.

I was interested in this as lately I’ve been reading a bit about Fordism and Post-Fordism — the influence of mechanisation on our way of thinking about the world, and the subsequent paradigm shift to a more ‘flexible’, ‘knowledge’ based economy. If you’re interested in exploring this more, this book is a good starting point (in an art and design context). I’ve also really got into this dictionary of ‘Critical Theory’ lately**, and have found it to be a handy route in to a lot of the phrases, terms and people that crop up in articles, discussions etc, but which I know nothing about. There’s a clear and easy to understand definition of Fordism and Post-Fordism in that.

* Available to listen again till Saturday.

** Realise that for the ‘haters’ out there, it’s going to be difficult to decide whether to ‘disrespect’ me for promoting a Will Young radio-show, or touting a dictionary of Critical Theory.

*** The clip used to illustrate this post is not really from the ‘golden era’ of Industrial Musicals – its from a slightly later period, and therefore lacks the production values (and budget) of some of its predecessors. But it was one of the few clips I could track down online. It was made by Allied Chemicals, and this ‘number’ is ‘The Great American Consumer’, from Seein’ the Light, 1978.

Poet, Playwright, and Scots Makar, Liz Lochhead, will be reading;
Singer and guitarist, Roy Bailey, (the man Tony Benn called “…the greatest socialist folksinger of his generation,”) will be playing;
The inimitable poet, essayist and activist Tom Leonard will perform;
Acclaimed folk artist Alasdair Roberts will play a solo set;
Gaelic musician Gillebride Macmillan will be singing;
And rising star of the Scottish Poetry Scene, Billy Letford, will read from his upcoming collection.

All profits will go to funding a trip for Musicians and Poets in Glasgow – including Billy, Liz and Gillebride – to go out to the West Bank, run workshops in the refugee camps around Bethlehem and perform in East Jerusalem. A return trip for Palestinian writers and musicians in planned for 2013, and hopefully we will form an ongoing cultural link and forum for Scottish solidarity with those in Glasgow’s twin city in occupied Palestine.

Owen Hatherley plays various Pulp records in connection to his new book Uncommon, he also mentions a brochure for the Urban Splash ‘regeneration’ of Sheffield’s Park Hill estate designed by the Designers Republic, of which this is the best photo I could find.

Followed, seemingly strangely, by Dan Hancox speaking about the importance of grime during the London student protests.

VISIT / 10.00am
– Company / Alex Swainhttp://www.company-london.com/
– An informal insight into business acumen combined with how to take a client on a creative journey.

VISIT / 11.30am
– The Association of Illustrators / Paul Rydinghttp://www.theaoi.com/
– There is very little former graduate Paul Ryding does not know about contemporary illustration.

VISIT / 1.00pm
– Tomato / Michael Horshamhttp://www.tomato.co.uk/
– An intimate sharing of large and small projects from one of the most influential agencies. There portfolio goes back to 1991 and are continuing to work with Underworld.

VISIT / 4.00pm
– Pentagram / Jane Pluerhttp://pentagram.com/en/portfolio/
– One of the most impressive offices in the creative industries with a workshop to match. Imperious work delivered with style and elegance.

26.1.11DAY 2

VISIT / 11.00am
– Browns Design / Jonathan Elleryhttp://brownsdesign.com/
– Jonathan engaged with the students immediately by asking how they defined art compared to design. Award winning work from a man who applauds the students form outside London including The Glasgow School of Art.

VISIT / 1.30pm
– Field / Vera-Maria Glahnhttp://www.field.io/
– A German duo working with all the latest programming software and code to produce really beautiful ‘cross-media’ work. Cool rooftop garden with views over to the City of London.

VISIT / 4.30pm
– Build / Nicky and Michael Place with former graduate Lynne Devinehttp://wearebuild.com/
– Michael allowed us to touch, feel and sniff the quality of his best design for print. Designers Republic guru happy to be working in a small agency with one of our best graduates.

Following his own maxim that “every lie creates a parallel world in which it is true”, Momus (Scottish musician and author of The Book of Scotlands and The Book of Jokes) sets out to tell twenty-seven fantastic lies about things which happen, have happened or will happen in Glasgow School of Art’s most famous building. His attempted lies will sometimes falter and fail, falling back into truths, reasonable and useful suggestions, and thoughts about lying itself.

This weekend I was looking through the highly impressive Ubuweb and stumbled upon this film, Production of Meaning, by Adbusters. I’m interested in this because while I broadly agree with the sentiment, I was really struck by how outdated and simplistic the analysis seemed to be. I used to buy and read Adbusters and have been away from it for a while, but wonder whether post Naomi Klein and No Logo, the arguments need to be more subversive and more sophisticated in equal measure.

The second benefit of roaming Ubuweb was that I came across a link to this download of the entire Ken Nordine album ‘Colors’, which wholeheartedly satisfied my jazz/colour analysis needs.

While the film above is talking about sound in an ‘art’ context, its useful to translate some of the discussions across to its use in design. The following outlines an interesting position; “In fact, music is never just about music: it is always the product of its wider situation[1]. Some musics reinforce the status quo[2] . Other musics try to affect the collective conditions of existence. We’re interested in the later: not once radical, now stagnant scenes, but musics that continue to develop useful ways of acting and thinking outside dominant ideologies; musics as part of that wider situation, with something to say about and offer back to it.”

[1] Isn’t music always produced through interacting social, cultural, philosophical and ideological factors. (Is it cowardly/reckless/naïve to abstract away from these?)

[2] Don’t you find that most music (incl. most experimental music) simply fortifies false notions of freedom and possessive individualism, of art as lifestyle choice lacking the will/ ability to say anything other than the simply musical?

A while back David Coyle sent me a link to some footage of American composer Robert Ashley, performing excerpts from his early 1980’s ‘TV opera’s’. I was quite amazed by them. You can find out more about Ashley here.

If you’re anywhere near Newcastle at the end of July, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art presents three days of printmaking, illustration and live music with Canadian art duo, Seripop from Friday 31 July to Sunday 2 August 2009.